


syllables

by bangboozle



Category: DRAMAtical Murder (Visual Novel), DRAMAtical Murder - All Media Types
Genre: Books!, Fluff, Humor, M/M, everyone is cute shut up, i really just wanted to write cute stuff ok, mentions of baby trip and baby virus, slightly plotless, trip is also cute, virus is a cute bookworm
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-10
Updated: 2015-05-10
Packaged: 2018-03-29 21:10:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3910816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bangboozle/pseuds/bangboozle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Trip loves it when Virus reads to him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	syllables

     Back when they were kids, Trip would punch, kick, and spit his way through the crowd to the rec room in the laboratory, whose walls were lined with bookshelves abundant in novels with titles Trip couldn’t understand. Whose floors were covered in building blocks and other trinkets that promoted “healthy” and “natural” learning.

     Trip would naturally make his way to the bin full of action figures, making them brutally fight until one of the plastic arms was separated from its sockets. Eventually, the officials of the laboratory figured out who had dismembered all the action figures in the bin, and Trip was banned from using them.

     Then, of course, he would move on to the building blocks.

     What could be so harmful about balsa blocks that were painted rudimentary colors? The answer varied, depending on how hard Trip would throw them at the other kids that were half his size. Thus, he was banned from using those, as well.

     This process continued until all Trip could do was leaf through the books on the shelves, finding nothing but complicated symbols that weren’t dissimilar to the soupy mess of souls that would always make _so_ _much_ _noise_. The words would almost jump off the page and scream at him, much like the souls would jump out of the two-dimensional world Trip would see them in and screw with his head until all he could do was beat them into a bloody mess of cracked bones and purple bruises.

     That all changed when, one day, a boy would sit down next to him.

     Trip would find that the guy’s voice was soft and pleasant and, no matter the volume, would never scream in his ear like all the others. The young man wouldn’t care whether Trip said anything or nothing. To him, Trip was no friend, no foe. Just someone that he could stand.

     “What does this mean?” the redhead would ask quietly. Virus would ask for Trip to be more specific, to point to a certain word, but Trip wouldn’t. He’d only stare at the pages with the utmost confusion. Virus would nod in understanding and motion for Trip to sit next to him on the old, beat-up couch that was placed in the rec room, ruined by too many juice box spills and bladder accidents.

     “I’ll read it to you.”

 

* * *

 

     Trip was twenty. He had finally learned to read--not from Virus, but from an extra few training sessions at the lab--but never put it into his mind. Never did, except when he was with Virus. Reading was necessary for work (signing papers, mostly), but even then, Virus would do most of it.

     In fact, there was a certain time they shared, a ritual of sorts, where Trip would enter Virus’s room late at night after a long day of work and murmur gentle words that Virus would roll his eyes to.

     “Read to me?” Trip would always ask. And Virus, without saying a word, would read Trip a passage from the current novel he had lost himself in, an amused smile playing on the edges of his thin lips.

     On a good day, Trip _asked_ for _specific_ things, ranging from _A Midsummer_ _Night’s_ _Dream_ to classical mythology. Virus would reach for them reluctantly, but then grow more into it as his voice recounted the tales of Hermia and Titania, or Baucis and Philemon.

     What had started as Trip loving the smoothness and fluidity of Virus’s voice had blossomed into something more; a love for literature that Virus simply had to fulfill. The older man loved books so much, he couldn’t deny Trip the opportunity of getting lost in one, either.

     One night, however, it was different.

     Virus’s voice rang clear in Trip’s ears as he lay next to the other as he pictured the scene from behind his eyelids.

     “Alice felt a little irritated at the Caterpillar's making such VERY short remarks, and she drew herself up and said, very gravely, `I think, you ought to tell me who YOU are, firs--’”

     Virus never finished his sentence, because Trip’s face was buried gently against the crook of his neck.

     “Trip.”

     “Hm?” the other man hummed.

     Virus looked down at him with narrowed blue eyes, expecting him to have gotten the message already. Trip knew the boundaries of their relationship: yes, Virus would read to him, but no, they would not touch one another so intimately for no reasons whatsoever.

     “Get off me.”

     Trip’s lips pushing against Virus’s cool skin made his words come out in a muffled, monotone grumble. “Keep reading.”

     Virus was about to shove Trip off, but then realized that the other’s lips were _warm_. _Comfortable_ , even. It seemed like Trip’s chin and forehead fit perfectly against the steep curve of his neck.

     So, with a sigh, he continued reading, making it for only a few sentences more before Trip’s lips stopped him again. They moved slowly over the skin just under Virus’s ear. From how measured Trip’s movements were, Virus could tell that they were deliberate. This was no accident.

     “Trip. You’re not paying attention,” Virus pointed out. Lewis Carroll would be rolling in his grave right about now.

     “I am,” the other man replied simply, moving up to place kisses at Virus’s jaw.

     “What’d I just say, then?”  
     Virus shivered when Trip’s teeth slid wickedly against his flesh as the younger man smiled.

     “That I wasn’t paying attention.”

     “What am I going to do with you,” Virus groaned.

     “I was about to ask you the same question.”

     “Not quite yet, Trip. Let me ask a few more before you get there.”

     “Shoot.”

     “Why are you acting this way? It’s so unlike you.”

     “I don’t know. Alice explores Wonderland. I want to explore you.”

      “Explore me,” Virus said, looking down at Trip with a deadpan expression.

      “Yep. Your skin is so soft. It looked soft from where I was lying. It is.”

     For once in his life, Virus had no idea how to respond. He was a sucker for attention--one or two quick fucks in the alleyway with men he’d met off the street weren’t particularly uncommon--so it wasn’t bad from that regard. But the fact that it was Trip, now that was a different story entirely. Not one he wanted to read, that’s for sure.

     But his lips pressed onwards, leaving a warm, damp trail behind them.

     “...You’re kissing me, you know.”

     “I know.”

     “I didn’t think you were into kissing.”

     “I’m not, but your skin is nice.”

     “Then man the fuck up and do it face-to-face already,” Virus snapped back.

     And then, in what seemed like a matter of microseconds, Trip pushed their lips together. Virus didn’t respond immediately, waiting until the other’s tongue prodded gently against his lips before opening his mouth for him slowly; tentatively. Trip let his teeth graze over Virus's lip slowly, feeling the blood rush to his cheeks as the other let out a soft chuckle. Their tongues wrapped around each other, loving the mingled taste of rosé and dark chocolate.

     To Virus’s surprise, Trip’s kisses didn’t feel anything different than those of the men he’d met in the alleyway; both were messy and inexperienced, occasionally delivering too much teeth or too much tongue, and both held him close and satisfied the need to feel attended to, to feel appreciated, to feel real.

     However, the sheer sweetness of Trip’s mouth was what really set Virus off.

     Trip was into sweets, Virus knew, but this was ridiculous. The sugar must’ve permanently engraved itself into Trip’s mouth, because as they separated for a breath, Virus could practically feel it staining his lips.

     “Virus,” Trip murmured, nuzzling up against the other’s face. The name felt slick as it rolled from his moist, slightly swollen lips.

     “Hm?” The aforementioned man glanced up into Trip’s eyes at the sound of his name being called. In doing so, Virus could see the mischief and wit that were held within them.

     “Read me your kink list tomorrow night?”

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> excerpt was from lewis carroll's alice's adventures in wonderland! (not claiming ownership to that at all please don't sue me)


End file.
